Friday, 7 October 2016

There's a great sense of pride here in the Carreducker workshop this week....for two reasons...we've teased you a little bit about this first piece of exciting news...

Carreducker is going to be featured in a permanent exhibition in the Design Museum in its architecturally significant, magnificent new home at 224-238 Kensington High St, here in London. It will open on November 24th and we are really proud to be part of a major national museum exhibition

Earlier in the year we were invited by the museum to create a display telling the story of handsewn shoemaking as part of a permanent display celebrating design and making.

Over the summer, we managed to squeeze in making the boots that will feature in the exhibition and to be filmed making them....quite a stressful experience as we couldn't afford for anything to go wrong... so that we can tell the story of our craft. Throughout the film, James' hands (but fortunately not his face) are featured, very close up and detailed.

Film maker, Camilla Corr took on the not inconsiderable challenge of capturing the 200+ processes that go into crafting a pair of shoes and then turning them into a three-minute compelling piece of film. She's been holed up in the edit suite for the past few weeks and will be for a few weeks more, but we can't wait to see the final cut!

Being part of London's Design Museum is a huge honour and we are thrilled that our modern approach to shoemaking - combining a strong design aesthetic with the traditional, highly skilled techniques - has been recognised in this way.

Visitors will have the opportunity to watch the process of Engligh handsewn shoemaking, to see the tools and materials involved and to examine the finished boots at close quarters. The Museum aims to make the work accessible, so visitors will be able to pick up and look at the boots in detail.

The second piece of news is that James and I have now both completed our Society of Shoefitters courses under the patient guidance and encouragement of Maureen Unsworth. We are delighted to become Members and to bear the letters M.S.S.F. after our names.

Rosemary and Maureen (centre) assessing James' size 12s

If you are involved in the shoe industry in any way, this course is well worth taking. Even after 15 years in the shoemaking industry we learned a great deal... and, as you know, there is always more to learn...which is what makes shoemaking so fascinating.